The grocery store down the street from me had those for about a year, then abandoned them. I suspect that theft was just part of the reason. The other was that their high-tech produce scales kept breaking. They went cheap on them and there was always a line for the one working scale that would print out bar codes.

The concept was great when everything worked.

I certainly get the comment about overscheduled children. Where I live, the pressure on kids is enormous. I don't see how some kids get any down time. When my son was in public school (as opposed to college, where he is now) I couldn't believe what some parents did to give their kids an "edge," up to (and including) doing their projects, their homework, whatever it took. And on top of that, these kids did one or two sports, choir or band, student council and/or honor society - you name it, it had to be on their college applications. They spend thousands to help their kid do well on the SAT or ACT. These kids have it all done for them. They wouldn't know what to do with ten spare minutes if they were whacked in the face with it.

We couldn't do that to our child. We were very fortunate that some of our neighbors had the same child-rearing philosophy, so there were plenty of opportunities for kids to play together.

I have to wonder how some of my son's peers are doing in college, now that mom and dad aren't there to structure their time.

I happen to live in Plano. (Not terribly far from that point on the map, as it happens.)

Yeah, $5 million is a LOT of bucks, but it all didn't go into radio control. The control boxes are solar powered - part of a larger green energy initiative. You can't tell on the above map, but Plano is fairly spread out, as are many of the suburbs here. This kind of thing ain't gonna be cheap no matter how you look at it - wireless or no.

The city doesn't just use wireless for the sprinklers. They've been building a muni wi-fi system of their own. Most of their vehicles have connectivity, though that system is most likely on a different frequency than the sprinklers. It's very cool stuff.

Which brings me to another question: What would have happened if the public safety system in Cedar Hill/Duncanville/De Soto had played havoc with Plano's public safety system?

If you read the DMN article, you'll notice that they installed the transmitters on hills. What they don't tell you (because the locals all know this) is that Cedar Hill is one of the highest points in the DFW metro area. This is where the TV and radio stations put their towers.

Plano is not the city experiencing interference problems. Coppell (out near DFW airport) uses wireless technology to monitor levels in water towers, and they've had problems. I'd say that getting water to your residents was a public safety issue.

So, yeah. They should have informed the other cities in the area about what they were doing and what frequencies they were planning to use. Other cities are probably planning similar systems, and it just makes sense to communicate.

But I'm asking too much of the bureaucrats.

(@Anonymous #2: The Morning News site is dallasnews dot com, which may lead to some confusion.)

I can see a jacket like that being useful at night with the addition of reflective material.

And I'll delete the rant about night cyclists in my community. (Hint: Dark clothing and no lights or reflectors.)

Not in this neighborhood. The network is locked down tight. Most of my immediate neighbors have wi-fi anyway. And even if we did want to share, these crappy - excuse me, charmingly retro - 1970s tract homes have so much junk in the walls that we can even get a good signal through the house without using a booster. If we were open and anyone did connect, the signal would be terrible.

Uh, that's "but so far we're happy." My brain is trying to shut down for the weekend.

Like GEEKPDX @9, we have a yard full of mature trees (the entire neighborhood is that way) and very few people can get dish. We were stuck with Comcast until Verizon wired us for FiOS. We were literally the first kids on the block to make the switch.

The customer service wasn't bad. Techs generally arrived when promised (they even sent one out on a Sunday), and the service installers knew their stuff. Yet, we had terrible signal issues, and every time they fixed a problem we'd be back to crappy Internet speeds and interference-filled cable in two weeks. We had a better network HDTV signal through the trees via the rooftop antenna than we got with cable most of the time.

I do know people who have had nightmarish issues with Comcast.

But man, I love fiber! Even with the last rate increase (we went two years before they raised the rates) we're paying just a tad more than we paid Comcast - and we have Internet, TV and landline service. More channels and faster Internet speeds, to boot. So far I've not had a bad customer service issue with them. I suppose it could all go south at anytime, gut so far we're happy.

If drilled correctly, yes.

There are strict regulations in bowling, but who checks equipment below the pro level any more? If I suspected someone on my league had non-regulation equipment I could take it to the league secretary, I suppose. I don't think it's worth raising a stink unless I can absolutely prove it.

@#6: Yep, there's something to be said about varying house conditions. I know plenty of people who do well in one or two houses and can't bowl worth a flip anywhere else. I am probably one of those people.

Take a small, lightweight tarp. Should your tent spring a leak you'll have something to cover the gear - and you. I'm with Mujadaddy - take more drinking water than you'll think you'll need and carry along some purification pills or a device to purify the water you DO drink from streams.

Oh, and you should always know where your towel is! ;-)

Feethinker @12: Don't forget about that little box most of us carry in our pockets or bags - the cellphone.

Don't get me started on that rant.

That's right. The county selects polling places, and they also have to find enough people to staff them. Draw what conclusions you will from that.

And yep, Texas has a grand tradition of gerrymandering. This last round of redistricting was a mess - the Democrats walked out twice. Once they went to Oklahoma, and the second time they went to New Mexico. The powerful folks in both parties seem to have the ability to carve out their own niches.

Don't get me started on our poster politician for term limits. Please.

Do your research and make sure the phone you want supports EVDO Rev. A, and that Rev. A is available in your area.

I'm kind of upset at Sprint because they've been promising both Rev. A and GPS for my phone for months on end and I'm still waiting. Their standard EVDO service is pretty good, but I'd sort of like to get the features I'm paying out, the um, antenna for.

I worked in radio in the mid 1980's. One year the government decided to do a nationwide test of an "actual emergency." They sent out a notice the day before. Oh, joy! The test would be on my shift!

It was the only time I'd ever heard ten bells. Scared the crap outta me, even though I knew the test was coming.

Of course, the REAL fun with that system was the fact that I worked for the equivalent of WKRP, which meant that we didn't have the hottest signal in the area. (Someone picked up the skip in Tel Aviv once...) This meant we had a device that monitored the clear channel AM station and an audible alert went off in the control room every time they activated the EBS. Normally that just meant we picked up the weekly test and noted it in the log.

The real fun came in the spring. We live in Tornado Alley, and that clear channel station reaches a good chunk of Texas. Every time there was a tornado warning off in their listening area (which included southern OK and eastern LA and AK) NOAA asked the clear channel station to activate the EBS and we got the notification. Some afternoons the alarm went off like crazy, right in the middle of breaks or newscasts. We weren't required to activate our EBS, but the government expected us to log every single alarm.

Twenty years on I still jump when I hear the EAS test.